Family purchases and payments

Learn how shared purchases work with Family Sharing, what the family organizer is responsible for, and how to update your payment methods.

When you set up purchase sharing, one adult in the family—the family organizer—agrees to pay for any purchases that family members make while they're part of the family group. With Ask to Buy, you can manage what your family purchases. And it's easy to change the payment method that you use with Family Sharing at any time.

Here’s how shared purchases work

Any time a family member makes a new purchase, it's billed directly to the family organizer's account. That means the family organizer pays for any iTunes, Apple Books, and App Store purchases of the other family members. This also includes content that family members can't share. For example, ongoing subscriptions—like Apple Music Individual or Student Subscriptions—are paid for by the family organizer too. Any transaction receipts are sent directly to the family organizer.

After it's paid for, a purchased item is added to the account of the family member who made the purchase. If you turn off purchase sharing, each member keeps their purchases, even though they were paid for by the family organizer.

Change your Family Sharing payment method

The family organizer can see or change the family's account information—like the shared credit card number, billing address, and more—from Settings or System Preferences. Just make sure that you keep your account up to date with a payment method that works with Family Sharing.

On your Windows PC

Learn more

Family Sharing requires a personal Apple ID signed in to iCloud and iTunes. If your family has purchase sharing turned on, music, movies, TV shows, and books can be downloaded on up to 10 devices per account, five of which can be computers. iOS 8 or later and OS X Yosemite or later are required to set up or join a Family Sharing group. But we recommend you update to the latest iOS and macOS for full functionality. Not all content is eligible to be shared. Content can be hidden by family members; hidden content is not available for download. Content downloaded from family members or acquired via redemption codes is not subject to Ask to Buy.

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